Joel Santo DomingoHP Z210 Small Form Factor WorkstationIf you need the processing power of a workstation-class machine, and the added benefit of ISV certification, why not buy a true-blue workstation? The HP Z210 SFF is the one to get, as long as you don't need a lot of internal expansion room.

High-performance hardware. Easy to upgrade and service. Lots of USB ports, including USB 3.0. Compact form factor. No bloatware preinstalled.

Cons

Can only use half-height expansion cards. USB 3.0 is card-based. No room for extra hard drives.

Bottom Line

If you need the processing power of a workstation-class machine, and the added benefit of ISV certification, why not buy a true-blue workstation? The HP Z210 SFF is the one to get, as long as you don't need a lot of internal expansion room.

The HP Z210 Small Form Factor Workstation ($2,173 direct) is a compact but fast single-processor workstation PC. It looks like a standard HP business desktop, but the similarities are only on the surface. Instead of a regular Intel Core i5 or AMD Athlon II processor, the Z210 comes with an ISV-certified Intel Xeon quad-core processor and lots of other powerful components. Because of the small chassis, you don't get much in the way of internal expansion room, but the hardware's screaming performance earns the Z210 our Editors' Choice award for workstations. That it outperforms older, more expensive dual-socket systems is yet another plus.

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Design and Features
The Z210 SFF has the physique of one of HP's Compaq 8000-series desktops, as its chassis is visually identical to that of the HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF PC. These similar cases help extinguish the searing envy some workers experience when they see that their coworkers "just got a better/faster/stronger PC." It also lets you mix workers that have vastly different job functions in the same general area: The clerical-grade workers can use HP Compaq 8100 or 8200 Elite PCs, while the digital content creators, engineers, or financial analysts who need the extra power or ISV certifications get HP Z210 SFF workstations. Casual viewers won't be able to tell the difference at a glance.

Inside, the system is all business. IT service touchpoints are highlighted in green so, for example, the IT tech can easily swing up the optical drive to get to the SSD mounted underneath. Business systems are usually configured to the IT purchaser's specs, but our review model came with an Intel Xeon E3-1245 processor, 8GB of ECC DDR3 memory, Intel integrated HD Graphics P3000, DVD burner, a 160GB solid-state drive (SSD) for a boot drive, and a 1TB 7,200rpm data drive. We also tested the system with a 1GB Nvidia Quadro 600 discrete graphics card (a $170 option). There's enough space inside the chassis for two PCI Express (PCIe) x16 graphics cards (though one slot is wired x4) and a PCI card; a USB 3.0 card occupies the single PCIe x1 slot. The system's power supply is 240 watts, about average for a small-form-factor business system. Outside, there's an abundance of connectors: ten USB 2.0, audio on the front and back, PS/2 for both mouse and keyboard, serial, VGA, Ethernet, two USB 3.0, and DisplayPort. If you get the Quadro 600 card, you add a DVI port and another DisplayPort jack. Regardless, the system is ready for multiple monitors out of the box.

Our Z210 came with some HP utilities preinstalled, and some that are downloadable. Intel's vPro is supported via Intel AMT 7.0. Not surprisingly, the Z210 has preinstalled clients for HP's Client Management system. Other HP goodies include backup and recovery utilities, HP Performance Advisor, HP Power Assistant, HP Protect Tools (security), HP SkyRoom (collaboration software), and a few support and diagnostic utilities. Your IT manager will of course pick and choose what software to preload on your system in an enterprise, but you can avail yourself of these utilities even if you're a small business.

Performance
The system's Xeon E3-1245 processor is based on the same "Sandy Bridge" architecture as other current-generation Intel Core processors. It's a true quad-core processor with built-in Intel HD Graphics P3000. The P means that it's the workstation-certified version of the Intel HD Graphics 3000 logic found on some Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The pairing of the processor and SSD helps the Z210's turn out excellent performance numbers. The Z210 completed our Handbrake video encoding test in a lightning-fast 1 minute 32 seconds, and the Photoshop CS5 image filter test in only 3:04. To put this into perspective, the Editors' Choicewinning Lenovo ThinkStation C20 ($4,618 direct, 4 stars) and Apple Mac Pro ($3,499 list, 3.5 stars) each had dual Xeon processors (of an older generation), and were slower: The ThinkStation C20 earned 2:06 on Handbrake and 4:09 CS5, the Mac Pro 2:22 on Handbrake and 4:42 on CS5.

On the 3D front, the Z210's Intel HD Graphics P3000 was good, but there are more powerful GPUs out there. The Z210 completed the 3DMark Vantage test with a score of 11,716 on the Entry preset, and 753 points on Extreme. When I added the DirectX 11 (DX11)compatible Nvidia Quadro 600 card, the scores went up significantly (to 15,038 on Entry and 1,571 on Extreme). The Lenovo C20 was quite a bit higher, at 18,281 for Entry and 2,500 for Extreme, thanks to the C20's Quadro FX 1800 card. Though you wouldn't typically play 3D games on a workstation, some game designers may want the ability to test code in progress. The Z310 could only produce a somewhat playable 46 frames per second (fps) on Crysis with the Quadro 600 card, and a very slow 23fps with integrated graphics. Lost Planet 2 was slow as well, but it shows that the Quadro 600 is at least DX11 compatible (the Intel HD Graphics P3000 can only handle DX10).

With this kind of performance, why wouldn't you get a HP Z210? If you absolutely need the power of two full CPUs, then you'll want a more powerful system like the Apple Mac Pro or the Lenovo ThinkStation C20. Both those systems outperformed the Z210 on the CineBench R11.5 test, which rates the CPU's raw capability. This means both systems will be better at high-end tasks like rendering 3D for still or CGI movies, oil and gas exploration, or any other number problem with hundreds of thousands of variables. But for other workstation tasks, like digital content creation and everyday number crunching, the HP Z210 is actually fasterits second-generation Intel Core processor and SSD boot disk make a big difference. For that and its overall bang for the buck, the HP Z210 Small Form Factor Workstation leapfrogs the Lenovo ThinkStation C20 and is our new Editors' Choice for desktop Workstation PCs.

HP Z210 Small Form Factor Workstation

excellent

Bottom Line: If you need the processing power of a workstation-class machine, and the added benefit of ISV certification, why not buy a true-blue workstation? The HP Z210 SFF is the one to get, as long as you don't need a lot of internal expansion room.

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About the Author

Joel Santo Domingo joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel e... See Full Bio

HP Z210 Small Form Factor Works...

HP Z210 Small Form Factor Workstation

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